


Perfect Day

by lizook12



Category: Iron Man (Movies)
Genre: Established Relationship, F/M, Family, Future Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-06
Updated: 2013-06-06
Packaged: 2017-12-14 02:29:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 955
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/831673
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lizook12/pseuds/lizook12
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It’s been too good of an afternoon;she almost starts to hate that they’ve made it a tradition</p>
            </blockquote>





	Perfect Day

**Author's Note:**

> This one involves Pepperony offspring, but it is NOT connected to the other fic I wrote with their daughter (even though I used the same name).

Pushing away from the table, she stands, shouldering her tote bag. “Come on, time to head home.”  
    

At the other end of the park two heads turn toward her and, unsurprisingly, it’s her husband’s complaints that carry across the space between them louder than their daughter’s.  
    

“...haven’t even been here that long.” He sidles up next to her, scowling as best he can as Christina grabs her book from the abandoned table.  
    

“Someone still has to pack.”  
    

“I thought that’s what I had you for.” Her look stops him in his tracks and he throws his hands up in surrender. “That’s what I have Happy for?”  
    

“Better.”  
     

He chuckles, catches her hand in mid-air and starts pulling her down the lane.  
    

“So what do you want from Prague?”  
    

She sighs, her mind drifting as she tells him what he has to visit if he has a chance, what pictures and little souvenirs he can bring back for Tina.  
    

Multitasking, just one of Pepper Potts-Stark’s many talents.  
    

It’s almost been too good of an afternoon—playing hide and seek, drawing chalk monsters next to the swings, their picnic lunch—she almost starts to hate that they’ve made it a tradition.  
    

Park day the day before either of them go away on business or a long trip.  
    

She can’t really hate it though because even if it means they won’t have him juggling oranges at breakfast or threatening to put another addition on Tina’s swing set for a few days, it also means late night phone calls (some of which still left her heart racing days later), a harassing text guaranteed just as she sits down to review the daily schedule with Happy.  
     

And more days like these.  
  

It had been unspoken, but they’d worked out a balance.  
    

Longer trips meant longer periods at home.  
    

Together.  
    

“...is perfect for Tina and I’ll just bring you a giant set of nesting dolls.”  
     

“How giant are we talking?” She lifts an eyebrow, grins at the mischief dancing in his eyes, knowing that they’re both thinking of the same thing. “And aren’t those Russian?”  
    

“Had to make sure you were paying attention.”  
    

“Unlike you, I can handle more than one thought at a time. And really, you don’t have to bring me anything back except you. Maybe some choc—”  
    

The words end in a gasp as cold rain splatters against her shoulders, slips beneath her shirt and skates down her spine. She shrieks and immediately starts rummaging through her bag, looking for her cell phone.  
    

“I didn’t know it was supposed to rain.”  
    

She feels his words more than she actually hears them as the water comes down in sheets, the intensity picking up with every step they take. Finally, her fingers close around her phone and she bows her head, trying to shelter it from the weather as she debates just who she should call to come and collect them.  
    

She doesn’t have a chance to even open her contacts, his hand snatches the device away, laughter dancing in his eyes as he tucks it into his pocket.  
    

“What... are... you doing?!” Futilely, she brushes the hair plastered to her forehead to the side, gestures to the dark clouds leading back towards their house as Tina runs ahead.  
   

“Having fun.”  
    

She’s at a momentary loss and she can tell it amuses him, his laugh getting lost in the deluge of water as she presses her lips together and watches her daughter jump into a newly formed puddle.  
    

Her little five-year-old face is turned up to the sky, arms working furiously as she runs to and from the path and then...  
    

Tony has tackled her, throwing her up in the air and spinning her in a circle before joining her in jumping in the next pool of mud.  
    

Pepper can’t take it anymore. Shaking her head, she begins walking beneath the trees lining the path, hurrying to close the slight distance between them. “You’re both going to have to change your clothes before we can even think abo—”  
    

“That’s ok. I’ll multitask: changing and packing at the same time.”  
     

“You think you can handle it?”  
     

“Possibly. I might need you to show me how it’s done.”  
    

She’s about to retort when Tina’s arms wrap around her legs, effectively stopping her progress to next sheltering tree _and_ covering her in mud.  
    

Inhaling slowly, she counts to ten, realizes if she can’t get the stains out then Tony will surely be able to come up with _some_ compound that can, and steps out into the rain.  
    

He’s grinning widely now, his eyes darkening as he takes her hand and pulls her close. His lips brush across her forehead before he spins her out, fingers flexing against hers as she laughs, throws her free arm out into the falling water.  
    

Out of the corner of her eye, she watches their daughter running ahead. Her book is just sticking out of the back pocket of her little book bag, her sunglasses still balanced on top over her head (always at the ready) as she laughs and plays.  
    

She really is the perfect combination of them.  
     

She thinks of telling him so as he pulls her back to him, but she can’t. She’s smiling too much and, anyway, with the way his mouth is turned just so, his thumb stroking over the exposed skin of her shoulder, she’s sure he already knows.  
    

Leaning into his embrace, she closes her eyes. “You’re both bad influences.”  
    

“You wouldn’t have it any other way.”  
   

(It’s a slow walk home, filled with jokes and threats and discussion about what she would do if he really did bring home a giant set of nesting dolls.

 

She wouldn’t change a thing.)


End file.
